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On Wings of Care
A surface slick seen in aerial photos taken on Jan. 27 near the site of the 2010 BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is more than seven miles long.
A persistent, mysterious "oil sheen" in the Gulf of Mexico near the site of BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster grew to more than seven-miles long and one-mile wide during a recent stretch of calm seas, based on aerial observations made by a former NASA physicist turned environmental activist.
"We had maybe three or four days (of calm weather) and that’s all it took for the stuff to build up considerably," Bonny Schumaker, the physicist who now runs the non-profit On Wings of Care, which makes regular flights over regions of the Gulf affected by the 2010 oil spill.
In a flight report from Jan. 27 posted on the group’s website, she described the oily expanse as "huge."
Schumaker first noticed the sheen in September 2012, when it was also reported by BP to the National Response Center, the point of contact for all oil spills and other discharges into the environment. Since then, BP has inspected the well site four times with underwater robots and found it secure.
The company "also capped and plugged an abandoned piece of subsea equipment known as a cofferdam that was identified as a potential source of the sheen," reads a statement BP provided to NBC News via email on Wednesday.
The cofferdam is the 40-foot-tall, 86-ton steel containment dome that was used in the early stages of the response in an attempt to trap the leaking oil and funnel it to the surface.
"BP continues to work closely with the U.S. Coast Guard to investigate possible sources of a sheen in the vicinity of the (2010 spill site)," the company’s statement said.
Source a mystery
According to Schumaker, scientists who have sampled the sheen on several occasions "have consistently found the presence of alpha olefiens, which is a chemical bond signature of a man-made chemical you would not find in pure crude form."
That suggests, she explained, that the source of the sheen is "residual material coming from the wreckage." If so, as far as impact is concerned, that is good news since it "would imply that it is finite in volume and temporary in time. There will be an end to it."
Ian MacDonald is an oceanographer and oil spill expert at Florida State University. Another possibility, he explained to NBC News, is that the sheen is from a "natural seep that somehow became more active than it was before because prior to 2011 or so we had not seen abundant oil slicks at that location."
Images from Schumaker’s flights also indicate the presence of a new drilling platform in the vicinity of the Deepwater Horizon incident and these fresh oil sheens.
"That doesn’t indicate culpability on anybody’s part — I want to emphasize that," MacDonald said. "But it does indicate that if you’re trying to do due diligence and monitoring a post-accident site of great interest the way the Deepwater Horizon site is, these are some of the things that you face."
Whatever the source, the volume of oil coming to the surface is no cause for alarm, MacDonald noted. There are many natural seeps in the Gulf of Mexico that produce similar-sized persistent surface sheens. "It doesn’t rise to the level of being an imminent threat to wildlife or the marine ecosystem," he said.
The concern, he noted, is trying to sort out its source. "The chemical data are a bit ambiguous." Some analyses he’s seen suggest the presence of drilling fluid, which is consistent with what Schumaker has heard. But other analyses, from other sources that he said he’s privy to, find no drilling fluid.
In that case, it’s possible that the wreckage in 2010 somehow opened up a new fault on the seafloor. That possibility is inconsistent with BP’s findings, but would nevertheless indicate potential for an indefinite release of oil.
Dearth of wildlife
Regardless of the source of the sheen, more disheartening to Schumaker is the "dearth of marine life" in a 30 to 50 mile radius of the site of the Deepwater Horizon disaster. She’s flies just about every month all year long.
"Since the fall of 2011, now about 14 months, I see no turtles, few if any dolphins, few if any rays — Manta rays, cownose, golden rays, any of them — few sharks, few bait balls, all of the things we used to see," she said.
That doesn’t mean the wildlife is dead, she noted, but what they eat may no longer be plentiful. As a result, they are going elsewhere to find food.
A study published in August 2012 found that dispersants used during the spill response may have damaged the microoganisms at the bottom of the food chain, which would have dire implications for fish and larger sea animals.
"I guess the Gulf of Mexico in these parts is a stinky, dead desert for its previous visitors," Schumaker said in an email to NBC News.
John Roach is a contributing writer for NBC News. To learn more about him, check out his website.
Leave a Comment:
Its a Charlie Sheen!!!
The Gulf of Mexico "is a stinky, dead desert" for the populations that used to live in its waters. On land, old injection wells our government allows industries to use for pumping chemical waste deep underground are rusting and crumbling, poisoning our deepest aquifers. Fracking uses enormous amounts of fresh water and turns it into chemical brine containing arsenic and benzene and heavy metals leeched from earth in the process. Fracking is killing cattle and they are our canaries!
Long ago the EPA decided those deep aquifers would cost too much in drilling to be used as a potable water source. But as climate change continues, wars will be fought over water as they are now being fought over oil. France and Mexico are already drilling as deeply for water as the EPA determined was prohibitively costly years ago.
Does anybody in the USA care about these issues that may result in our extinction? Or are they only concerned about having to endure background checks for their plethora of firearms??
Visit propublica.com to follow up on two important articles:
1) Injection Wells: The Hidden Risks of Pumping Waste Underground
2) Message from Mexico: U.S. Is Polluting Water It May Someday Need to Drink
In the USA,it's all about the money....the big shots in the business world are socking away Billions of dollars,and,when the day comes that America is a wasteland of polluted water wells and soil,these wealthy barons will flee with their families to island getaways as America succumbs to a horrible ending.
Maybe its one of those sub surface "plumes" which were talked about during the disaster surfacing. As far as the absence of marine life...the animals are smart enough to avoid the area and find food elsewhere. Going to take some time for the region to settle down. Wonder what the shrimp and oysters taste like?
January 26, 2013 - A warning from Chef Marcus Guiliano - DON'T EAT THE SHRIMP! "I would not eat a single thing from there"
The Gulf is NOT "a stinky, dead desert". She says that she doesn't see a lot of wildlife in a small area around the well. That is NOT the entire Gulf.
The seafood harvest last year in the Gulf, was the largest in 10 years. Last spring saw record numbers of sea turtle nests and hatchings, in many areas along the Gulf Coast. If you check out the bird count sites, you will find that there have been more record sightings of various birds SINCE the spill, than there had been in the 20-40 years before. Go read the reports from the sport fishing guides, they are finding plenty of fish.
Go check out the pictures here and the links folks post, if you want to REALLY know the condition of the Gulf
A known BP Shill by name on the BP America Facebook page. How desperate!
The quote was "The Gulf of Mexico in these parts...." I was just speaking to him candidly on the phone. And it is an over-simplification. The point I wanted to make to him was that I am implying no correlation between the presence of this sheen and any suggested death of marine life in this area. Only that the area apparently is no longer attractive to the kind of marine life that used to abound there, at least according to what we saw on overflights up until late fall of 2011. If you look at our website, you'll see plenty of whale sharks and whales and dolphins that we continued to see in OTHER parts of the Gulf. But at no location within about 50 miles of MC252 do we see anywhere near as many tuna, dolphin, whales, sharks, turtles, or other wildlife as we used to see. --bonny
The Fake Cairenn Day (Real Name Jean Penny) is a BP employee and a flat out liar. She is the facebook page BP Pal and is a disgrace to the human race. Go eat a corexit samich and bake in some oil somewhere you fraud.
We need to immediately contact Representatives dward J. Markey at 202-225-2836 or Henry A. Waxman at 202-225-3976 and DEMAND an INDEPENDENT seafloor survey be done immediately!
January 26, 2013 - A warning from Chef Marcus Guiliano on YouTube - DON'T EAT THE SHRIMP! "I would not eat a single thing from there"
This has been going on for months! Time to get the fox out of the hen house and find the cause!
January 27, 2013 -- Seven nautical miles of fresh oil sheen in length observed near the site of the BP April 2010 oil disaster, near the infamous lease block "MC252." The surface slick stretches south to north and is over a mile wide in many places. Patches of rainbow and weathered “mousse” were observed in the sheen as well. See NRC Incident Report #1036763.
I'm with OneWorld - get a seafloor survey done
Among other things a 40 foot, 86 ton (172,000Lbs) containment dome and residual material coming up from the wreckage????????
I thought all the wreckage and debris were removed by BP!
I THINK WE HAVE BEEN LIED TO!!!!!!!!!
I am pi$$ed and am going to write to the US government as well as other world leaders about this.................oh wait, Hmmmmmm BP.
BP is the US government and a world leader.
Never mind....move along folks.....everything is fine........nothing to see here......move along now....that's right move along.
Bonnie is an amazing person. Please do not distort her "sound bite" type comment without reviewing her entire report. She does not provide this unselfish service for you to criticize her. They are reasonable, rational and objective observations. She is doing what the EPA is charged with performing but does not. There are several other scenarios excluded from possibilities. Anyone ever wonder what they might be. BP and its PR machine do not want you asking. Two words: Occam's razor.
Sue BP until they collapse under the burden of their lethally inept and grotesquely overpaid management.
It will serve as a lesson to others like them, and some few of their peers may actually learn in time to prevent other disasters instead of trying to find brilliant ways to survive the aftermath of idiocy and greed.
Note that BP didn't take action to secure the wreckage of the dome and the contents until a citizen in a single-engine plane pointed out the mess on the surface. They left it there for two years without doing the responsible thing. And USCG and the rest of the federal team let them do it. If wewant to get the facts on the situation out there, we need to keep this lady flying. Donations for fuel, anyone?
Oh, GREAT. Now, let's hurry up with that Canadian tar sands pipeline right across the heart of the country, shall we? The oil companies SWEAR it's safe... *wink-wink*
I'll bet that Charlie Sheen took a dip around there and the oil came from his hair.
An oil sheen covering 0.000000001 of the Gulf of Mexico's size. oh s**t the world is coming to an end! Lack of fish in the area of the disaster. This runs counter to the findings in the other effected ares of the gulf where fishing totals are up substantially over numbers before the disaster. Not to mention, where is all of the oil? Scientist have found that because of all of the natural seeps (talking millions of barrels a year) they found that microbes have been growing for millions of years and they ate all of the oil! Wow, kinda shoots the theory of the total demise of the gulf doesn't it. If you want the true facts, listen to Exxon, they have been in the oil business for over a hundred years.
You keep creating these industrial waste, so toxic to Life. You already know how deadly they are , but, you still keep making them.
For eons, humans survived without all these industrial wastes. Yes, folks, as if you all didn't know. Humanity had survived with clean Air, clean Water, fertile Soil, pesticide free crops.
Keep making industrial toxic wastes you don't know how to recycle like Nature recycle its wastes, folks, and let's see where you all end up in.
In all likelihood, it will not be nuke bombs or chemical warfare or bio-warfare that will make all of you extinct, but, with your careless so-called clever industries creating unrecyclable industrial wastes!
You haven't learned anything from eons of existence, except create industrial wastes that will kill you, eh?
They think they have evolved higher up the evolution ladder than the dinosaurs.
BP needs to fund truly independent scientists recognized by the greater scientific community as being long term ecological researchers with a history of financial independence to the energy industries. A deep subsurface ecological inspection and damage assessment must be accomplished. Afterwards a panel of scientists picked by the fishing community and those directly impacted will confer and assess the results of the scientific group for independence and vigor. Ongoing leaks should be assessed. (BP will likely never agree.)